Pa. Governor Rejects Latest GOP District Map

(CN) – Pennsylvania’s Democratic Governor Tom Wolf said Tuesday he is rejecting a new proposed map for the state’s congressional districts, saying the latest map drafted by the state legislature’s top Republicans continues to be an unconstitutional gerrymander.

In a series of tweets early Tuesday afternoon, Wolf said he enlisted the aid of Moon Duchin, an associate professor of mathematics at Tufts University to evaluate the map for fairness, and after receiving her report concluded he could not accept the Republicans’ map “because it too is a partisan gerrymander that does not comply with the court’s order or Pennsylvania’s Constitution.”

“Partisan gerrymandering weakens citizen power, promotes gridlock and stifles meaningful reform,” Wolf said in a written statement released in the wake of the tweets. ” As non-partisan analysts have already said, their map maintains a similar partisan advantage by employing many of the same unconstitutional tactics present in their 2011 map.

“The analysis by my team shows that, like the 2011 map, the map submitted to my office by Republican leaders is still a gerrymander. Their map clearly seeks to benefit one political party, which is the essence of why the court found the current map to be unconstitutional,” the governor said.

State Republicans submitted the redrawn map to Wolf on Friday night. The governor then had until this Thursday to to tell the state Supreme Court whether he approved of the map; and if he did, it would be enacted.

The legislature and the governor now need to come to an agreement by Thursday or the state’s Supreme Court will do the redraw.

On Jan. 22, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that an earlier version of the Republican-drawn map was unconstitutional and set in motion a multiple-week timetable to redraw all of the state’s 18 districts.

Wolf did not immediately say whether he would submit his own map to the court, and he has not publicly released his own proposed map.